Stephen Mulhern grilled on Josie Gibson romance rumours on This Morning

Stephen Mulhern looked extremely uncomfortable after he was asked on live TV about being pictured holding hands with Josie Gibson.

The In For A Penny host, 47, and This Morning star, 39, set tongues wagging last month after they were pictured looking cosy together outside a TV studio.

Mulhern was a guest on Tuesday’s episode of ITV’s This Morning and hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley couldn’t resist making a couple of cheeky digs.

In one segment, Mulhern could be seen making use of the ASMR area set up for today's show, prompting Mulhen to joke he was acting at home because he was "with one of our own".

Sitting up straight from a massage table, Mulhern laughed off the remark and told Shephard to "shut his face" before they went to break.

Towards the end of the show, Shephard and Deeley were interviewing Mulhern on his latest Max Magic book and brought the rumours up again, prompting Mulhern to break his silence.

Mulhern said: "Listen, she didn't turn up to rehearsals, I held her hand and I showed her where to stand. That is it. Finito!."

"Uh-huh, really. Your lips are sealed?" teased Deeley, while Shephard jibed, "Me thinks he protest too much."

As the pair burst into laughter, a flustered and red-faced Mulhern asked: "Why are you doing this to me?! Unbelievable!"

It comes after Gibson told The Standard last week of her frustration at regularly being linked to any man she is pictured with and insisting it simply isn’t true.

“Every time I like get pictured with a man, everyone thinks I’m with them,” sighed Gibson. “The joke about it is I am so single it’s ridiculous.

“I don’t message anybody, I don’t text anybody. I haven’t even got anybody I fancy but for some reason every time I’m pictured with a man everyone thinks they are my boyfriend and really they’re not. They [including Stephen] are lovely, lovely blokes, but I couldn’t be more single if I tried.”